mrpilot

We will be travelling to Italy this summer. Arriving in Rome on Wednesday morning, 9 June. We will be stayin at A CASA DI SERENA for four nights, then picking up our rental car @ Termini on Sunday the 13th. Driving up to Umbria where we will be staying at LA CASELLA for a week, then back to Rome for a night in a hotel before our Monday afternoon flight back to Florida.

QUESTIONS:
We want to do the Vatican. What's the best way? Guided tour (prices appear to be about $75 per person) or just do it on our own. Best time to go? AM / Noon / Evening?

ROMA PASS - Any insights are welcomed.

Any good ideas for Umbria?

Grazie!

Dayle

mrpilot,

Offically in Umbria:

Orvieto - used this as a base for the immediate area day trips to Civita di Bagnoreggio, Todi, Deruta. LOVED this beautiful and ancient hilltown with its Etruscan caves, museum and archeological excacations. Duomo has my favorite exterior that I've seen in Europe so far. Great wine, food, shops and art galleries too.

Gubbio - very interesting town and really liked it. Much less touristed than Tuscany hilltowns. Amazing central piazza views, ceramics, fun and unique "chairlift" up the mountain, you'll never for get it!

Spello - one of my favorites in Italy. Tiny, full of flowers and narrow, ancient streets. Palazzo Bocci**** outstanding. Untouristed, a couple of great restaurants. You can see Assisi in the distance, beautiful views. Easy to drive in/out and parking just across the street from Palazzo Bocci if you stay there. You probably aren't booking in time to get a res here however. Daytrip to Montefalco easy. Sagrantino di Montfalco wine is outstanding!

Assisi - very heavily tourist/pilgrimed, lots religious shops, amazing churches and basillica. Also very scenic, but very very busy during the daytime. You can hit church overload here easily. It's a good idea to divide it up over two 1/2 days. Worked for me.

You should do some searches here for some of the town names and read trips reports. Tons of good information.

Buon viaggio!

dutyfree

First of all,I would not be picking up your car at Termini especially if you have never been to Italy.Realize that you are going in
super high" season and everything will be extremely crowded with lots of lines everywhere.
Do the Vatican on your own and go EARLY in the morning before the tour buses show up although others on this board say that there are now nighttime hours that possibly that might work out.
Have you been to Italy before? What sort of things do you like to do on vacation and what are you interested in? If you let all of us know I am sure you can get some tips here.

zoecat

For Umbria, I highly recommend the Touring Club of Italy Umbria guidebook. It contains great information, but the best part are the driving and town itineraries. You can't go wrong using this book.

Try to do a day trip to the Piano Grande. The flowers should be in full bloom.

Mimar

When you say you want to go to the Vatican, what do you mean? St. Peter's? The Vatican museum and/or Sistine Chapel? Or more of the Vatican, like the gardens? The latter requires a tour, the rest can be seen on your own. (One exception the underground or scavi tour of the necropolis under St. Peter's. That is a tour requiring a reservation.)

So maybe you need to do a little more research. Ditto on Umbria. Just do a search here at Fodor's forum on Umbria and you'll find lots of information.

charnees

Consider taking the train out of Rome to Orvieto and then picking up the car. Avoid driving in Rome. Believe those of us who know -- driving in Italian cities is to be avoided. It's too easy to get lost, and the traffic and congestion is unreal. See the other thread on this board about driving in Italy for additional comments.

sacc

Mr. Pilot, I think you had better get very, very good maps -- it looks like La Casella is really off the beaten path!

Judging by Google maps, you will be in for a lot of driving. It's a 90-minute drive to Assisi or even Todi, and over an hour to Perugia (which is a fascinating city) from that location.

There are so many wonderful towns to explore in Umbria: Spello, Bevagna, Montefalco, Spoleto. But Umbria is quite mountainous, so plan well ahead.

And at least you're fairly close to Orvieto, which is an interesting town.

bobthenavigator

Location is important in Umbria and La Casella is not a good location for most of Umbria.

Jean

I don't La Casella is a particularly good location for exploring Tuscany either.

minkie

If you are interested in opera - and even if you are not - there is spectacular opera - outdoors beautiful!

Take the guided tour as the line ups at the Vatican are enormous...lines like I have never seen.

Rome is quite walkable and if you don't like to walk the busses are great and take you to any point you want to go.

Have a great time - Rome is incredible - even with the crowds!

TCC

"First of all,I would not be picking up your car at Termini especially if you have never been to Italy.Realize that you are going in super high" season and everything will be extremely crowded with lots of lines everywhere."


I would respectfully disagree. We have picked up a rental car on two previous vacations (once in June and once in July) at Termni, and we are planning to pick one up this June for a trip South.. We found the rental car offices marked very well, and the procedure very easy and we had no problems
whatsoever. Patience, directions from the rental car agent, a good map, and a good navigator next to you will get you out of Rome easily enough. It’s really no harder than driving around Washington, DC. If you get lost just ask for directions to the GRA (Rome’s Beltway)
Leaving on Sunday should make it even easier. You may also want to look at a rental car city pick up location. However, I’m not sure if many of them will be open on Sunday. There is a large rental car location at the Villa Borghese garage that is probably open on Sunday. I’ve never picked a car up there, but I did drop one off several years ago without a hitch.

Vatican - get there early and que up or take the tour
Look into the Scavi Tour - it’s amazing

www.vatican.va/ - All things Vatican

Lexma90

As of some recent time, I think last year, it is possible to reserve tickets for the Vatican museums in advance WITHOUT taking a tour. Of course, you can still take the Vatican's tour of the museums.

Their tour is 2 hours, and we wanted more time at the museums. So for our visit last fall, I bought tickets in advance, from the Vatican website, for a timed entry. We spent over three hours at the museum, guiding ourselves with the help of several guidebooks. But DEFINITELY buy tickets in advance or sign up with a tour - you do NOT want to be standing in that line.

canalatbourbon

Just returned from Italy at the end of March. We opted to pick up our rental in Perugia right outside the train station after a pleasant ride from Rome on the train. That decision was based on advice from a AAA agent who had travelled to Italy numerous times. If picking up the car at Termini is as easy as TCC says, I would rather do that next time than dragging luggage down and up the stairs of the metro and then to Termini and then on and off the train. We did have a hard time finding the place to return it at the Villa Borghese garage and had to deal with a very rude attendant. When in Rome you may want to buy a two day ticket for the red bus which is for tourists and will take you all around the city to the main sights. You can do this go round once to get a good view of all the sights and then get off at the ones you are most interested in seeing. I got this bit of advice from a flight attendant several months before my trip.